


Gunmetal Bones

by theandrogynousdragon



Category: Humans (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Childhood Trauma, Children, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I Wrote This While Listening to Hozier's Music, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Leo Elster has PTSD, Leo Needs a Hug, Leo gets a hug, Leo has a silly full name because i will cram as much metaphor into this as possible, Mia is kind of Mom and Sister to Leo, Protective Siblings, Sibling Love, Siblings, having some Mia feels so i wrote this, i am incapable of being nice to this boy i guess, implied Leo/Mattie, implied Niska/Astrid, okay i think i tagged everything, there's a cat, this is canon, this is just vague ramblings to be honest
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:27:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26402674
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theandrogynousdragon/pseuds/theandrogynousdragon
Summary: She was created to love him. She does.
Relationships: Anita | Mia & Leo Elster
Comments: 10
Kudos: 18





	Gunmetal Bones

* * *

* * *

He is not, strictly speaking, _her boy,_ and she knows this. But she was created to love him, so she does. He is such a sweet, curious child that it's easy. Then the others come, and they love him too, in different ways. But the thing is: the world is not kind to gentle things. She knows he will not always be the way he is now. He is named for warrior kings and carnivores, after all. She ties his shoes and sings him to sleep and teaches him to read. She refuses to teach him how to fire a gun, no matter how many times his father (her father) tells her to. He is only a little boy. She lets him be a little boy.

* * *

He is quiet, After. That's how they talk of it: After. He ties his own shoes now, but he had to relearn it first. Everything figuring out how to operate on a different system. He plays with matches sometimes, watching with wide eyes as the tiny flame blisters his fingertips, and she worries for him. (He is half hers, now, she tells herself. It's alright to call him her boy.)

* * *

He doesn't play with fire anymore, and turns his quiet into a surliness that is so at odds with the little boy he used to be. (There are bruises on his knuckles, on his arms. He's not very good at hiding them.) He is taller than her now, but he still tucks himself into her hugs sometimes.

* * *

He watches windows and doors and tracks movements. He rushes into arguments with bared teeth and bared fists, full of brimstone, full of enough anger that it hides the emptiness in those blue eyes. She wonders how no one else can see it. He pretends not to drink too much and she pretends not to worry about it. (However old he gets, whatever decisions he makes, he will always be her boy.)

* * *

He is not, biologically speaking, _her_ boy. But she was created to love him. She does. She loves him as fiercely and deeply as a string of code will let her. She loves him. She does. She always will. This does not mean she gets to keep him. (There is so much blood. So much.) She bares her teeth at the god Max prays to. “You cannot have him,” she snarls, pressing on the wound, “I won't let you.” She might not be able to keep him, but this doesn't mean she can't try.

* * *

He is quiet, After. Everything relearning how to operate on an older system. He smiles easier now, though, and the emptiness is mostly gone from his eyes. Little things. He curls into her side as much as his long limbs and broad shoulders will allow. “Tell me a story,” he whispers, voice raspy and half gone. “Something _happy_ ,” he begs. She runs her hands through his hair and spins a story where no one dies and nothing bad that happens is allowed to stay.

* * *

“Gramma?” a child with soft black curls and sharp brown eyes asks her, tugging on a sleeve. “How come Daddy has a funny name?” She looks at her boy, laughing and tossing a squealing baby into the air. She smiles.

“Your daddy,” she says, “was named for a box of chocolates.”

“Really?”

“Mhm. Leonidas chocolates. Very sweet.” Leo scoops up Niska's orange cat with one arm and shows her to the baby.

_“LEONIDAS DAVID NATHANIEL ELSTER YOU PUT CHEESEBURGER DOWN **RIGHT** **NOW**!!”_

Leo winces, “you don't have to kill my poor ears, Nis, bloody hell!”

The child giggles, “you have lots of names, Daddy!” 

“Nis! Look what you did! And so do you, Frederick George Thomas Elster.” Astrid comes to collect the errant Cheeseburger and ruffles Freddie's hair as she passes by. Smoke starts billowing out of the kitchen to the wail of an alarm and Leo freezes up for a second. He hands tiny Mia to her namesake and helps Max turn the oven and the smoke alarm off. “Knew there was a reason we didn't let you in the kitchen, Maxie.”

Mia smiles at the baby, bouncing her gently. She was created to love. So she does. (And this time little boys will be allowed to stay little boys, and not start playing with matches.) 

* * *

* * *


End file.
